The construction of the framing of partition walls has traditionally been carried out according to the following sequence: a first piece of lumber (usually a 2".times.4" lumber) to be used as a floor runner is secured to the floor where the interior wall is to be erected, a second piece of lumber (also a 2".times.4" lumber) to be used as a ceiling runner is secured to the ceiling directly above the first piece of lumber, a plurality of studs are erected between the first and second pieces of lumber, the studs are carefully aligned with the runners and secured thereto via nails while retaining their alignment with the runners.
One major drawback of the above described use of pieces of lumber as floor and ceiling runners is the time consuming step of aligning the studs with the runner and the relative difficulty of keeping that alignment during the securing step.
To avoid the above mentioned drawback, it has been proposed to replace the floor and ceiling lumber runners by U-shaped channels made of galvanised steel. These U-shaped runners are sized to receive conventional wood studs or to receive metallic studs.
Even though the above mentioned use of U-shaped channels as floor and ceiling runners speed up the erection of interior wall frames, a major drawback remains: the U-shaped channel runners are not suited to construct walls presenting a laterally curved portion, walls erected in a space where the distance between a floor and a ceiling varies or half walls having a figured upper end.